Henry Alfred Porter came to Chelmsford from Hampshire and married in the town in 1939, producing a son the following year. He served in the Royal Navy and was severely wounded at Dunkirk. He later served in north Africa and Normandy and was invalided and discharged,. In January 1946 he died in hospital at Epping. His home was in Parker Road.

Alfred was born in Hampshire in 1911, the son of William Porter and Eliza Porter (nee Griggs). He had a younger brother, Ernest S. Porter, born in 1914.

In 1939 Alfred married Winifred Grace Manning (born 1919) and the couple had a son the following year.

During the Second World War Alfred served in the Royal Navy as Petty Officer D/JX129623 at H.M.S. Defiance, the Royal Navy's torpedo school in Plymouth, Devonshire.

Henry Alfred PORTER, Petty Officer, H.M.S. Defiance, Royal Navy

Died in hospital at Epping. Aged 34

In 1940 he was severely wounded at Dunkirk. He subsequently served in north Africa and the Normandy invasion in June 1944, before being invalided and discharged.

Alfred died at Epping Hospital on 7th January 1946, aged 34. At the time of his death his wife was resident at 6 Parker Road in Chelmsford.

Today he lies in All Saints' Churchyard in Purleigh and is also commemorated on the village’s war memorial